Technical Field
This disclosure is in the field of controlling an A/V system with a remote control and, in particular, to the use of a microphone in a remote control in order to pair that remote control with the system which is creating the sound.
Description of the Related Art
Many homes have multiple TV sets, set-top boxes, stereo systems, movie theater rooms, and different places in which audiovisual content can be viewed. Frequently, each of these systems has their own remote control. Currently, in order to control a particular A/V system in a room, the remote control is paired to that particular system, whether it be a set-top box, TV set, stereo system, or the like. The same home may have a similar or, in many cases, an identical A/V system in a different room. That A/V system in a different room will be viewed by different people, and has its own remote control, which will control the operation of the A/V system in that room.
Accordingly, the remote control, which will control one of the A/V systems, is compatible with and emits the very same signals for each of the A/V systems in each of the three rooms. It is thus possible that if a person is changing channels on the remote control in one room, the signals emitted by that remote control, whether RF or IR, will be picked up by the A/V systems in the other rooms, and they would also recognize it as a request to change the channel.
Currently, in order to prevent an A/V system in one room from being controlled by a remote control that is in a different room, a particular remote control is paired to uniquely control an A/V system, and similarly, the A/V system is uniquely paired to respond only to that remote control. Namely, the A/V system has a code stored therein in which it will recognize and respond to only a single remote control with which it is paired, and even though it may receive signals from other remote controls, it will not respond. This particular solution is beneficial in that it ensures that a particular A/V system can only be controlled by one remote control, and it will ignore interference from all other sources, whether they are other A/V remote controls, a Bluetooth input, a cellphone, some other device that is emitting RF signals, IR signals, or some other source of input. Thus, while it is very convenient to ensure that a particular A/V system is not accidently controlled by the wrong remote control, it has the disadvantage that only one remote control can control that particular A/V system.
There may be a situation in which it is desired to quickly and easily permit a different remote control to control a particular A/V system, even one it is not paired with, without complex programming.